Steve Burton is taking his ex-wife Sheree Burton to court, alleging her she is preventing him from spending time their 11-year-old daughter Brooklyn.
The “General Hospital” star, 55, said his ex has “refused to honor” their official custody schedule, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY. After more than a month of back and forth, the former couple reached a new agreement for the summer on June 3. TMZ was the first to report the news June 11.
The dispute began when Steve Burton filed a request April 24 in the Superior Court of Orange County in California for a judge to enforce his “custodial and vacation rights” over Brooklyn, which were established in August in anticipation of his move from California to Tennessee.
In another declaration in May, the actor alleged, “this is a case of blatant parental alienation in which Sheree has systematically undermined Brooklyn’s relationship with me through obstruction, manipulation, and conduct designed to position me as the source of Brooklyn’s distress.”
Sheree and Steve Burton attend the 46th annual CMA Awards on Nov. 1, 2012, in Nashville.
Steve Burton said in his April filing that he and Sheree Burton have an agreement that provides him with time in the summer and two separate weeks of annual vacation. He asked for one week in June, the July 4 holiday and two consecutive weeks in August.
However, the actor alleged Sheree Burton enrolled Brooklyn in a summer lifeguard training that directly conflicted with his custodial time and “attempted to guilt” him into forfeiting it.
In her response on May 20, Sheree Burton stated that her former husband “gave up the time he fought for in court” in September when he allegedly informed her he “would not be exercising his Wednesday overnight parenting time.” She said he decided to move to Tennessee and filed to change their custody arrangement.
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(Matt Winkelmeyer, Getty Images)
When they agreed on new terms upon his move, Sheree Burton said she “was clear” that Brooklyn would not be out of the state for more than three weeks, but Steve Burton could visit her in California if he wanted more time. She also alleged that Steve Burton “has tried to change the schedule every month since he moved.”
Steve Burton stated that he was unable to take Brooklyn on Wednesdays because of his “unpredictable” work schedule and alleged that Sheree Burton “repeatedly refused to allow” his new wife Michelle Lundstrom to pick Brooklyn up on his behalf “despite Michelle being my wife and a consistent parental figure in Brooklyn’s life.”
Steve and Sheree Burton tied the knot in 1999 and share three children. In 2022, the soap star announced that he and Sheree had separated and that she was expecting another child that was not his. Their divorce was finalized in 2023, and he married Lundstrom in May 2025.
He also denied her allegations that he was making frequent requests to change the schedule, stating that Sheree Burton responds to his efforts to arrange visits “by guilting me, suggesting that exercising my custodial time is unfair to Brooklyn, or framing me as the cause of Brooklyn’s disappointment when plans conflict with my parenting time.”
“Instead of supporting my relationship with our daughter, Sheree has routinely made exercising my parenting time more difficult than necessary,” Steve Burton said.
At a June 3 hearing, the pair submitted a revised agreement reached with a mediator, giving Steve Burton custody of Brooklyn on Father’s Day weekend, another weekend in mid-July and two weeks in August.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘General Hospital’ star Steve Burton accuses ex-wife of ‘manipulation’